Author: morais

In this critical analysis I will be looking at the role I
performed on the production day of 22nd of February 2019. I was the Executive
Director and I also edited some videos for the show, the show was Girls
Interlude, a lifestyle show.

At the start of this module I created a goal for myself, I
wanted to get more experience in news production and directing, so this was a
good choice for me. As soon as the
roles came up on the screen, I was basically appointed the Executive director,
I spent some time doing some research on what an Executive Director did, and I
also read the hand-out we were given. I made sure I knew what was happening, I
wrote almost everything down on my notebook and I also created a group chat
where I could speak to the whole team. After getting whole team together I
allocated roles to everyone, and one or two of us had to take an extra role
just to make sure everything was covered.

The news show went out 15 minutes late and had difficulties
going out. I was in charge of getting everyone
ready for the show, I had to also edit some of the VT’s and film. I had to set
everyone with a task, so they knew exactly what they were doing. We had two
VT’s and I also found our interviewee and gave his contact details to the
person I allocated the role of News Editor. I also wrote the news order, so the
news editor knew exactly how it was meant to be. These are some of my strengths
and I would like to build more on it in the future.

There were some areas for improvement. The sound check should have been done earlier
but my team didn’t check it and the people who were meant to be helping in the
classroom didn’t really bother either. So, it was left to me to check it and
mic up the presenters. I also made different teams with the other students who
weren’t part of my group and my the people in my group their editor so that
they knew what we wanted, but people left without even letting us know or
telling us that they were going to leave, I think if we do another Girls
Interlude show we will pick people who are more willing to help and do
work. The bulletin didn’t have enough
moving pictures, which is something we should’ve had but again people didn’t
want to corporate with us. Other thing that I should’ve check is the copyright,
our show got deleted from YouTube.

In future, when working as an Executive Director, I will
ensure the people who aren’t in my group actually do what we ask them because
we were meant to be professional, as if we are actually working on a lifestyle
show and not just a mock show. I will also make sure everything is ready on
time as I had to edit some things last night because people hadn’t done it yet.

Overall, this was a successful day for me. I built on the plans I made, produced some
good work and I was able to find my weakness and my strengths.

The inspiration for this collection comes from ‘club kids’ era which happened during the late 80s and early 90s. The new UNDERAGE collection takes a look at craziness and transformation. UNDERAGE tried to celebrate a loved culture that we still see in our day-to-day.

The collections name comes has a psychedelic and vibrant undertone, you can also see this in each of the looks. The garments also have sexual images that you can see alongside bold colours. Although these details have been placed in subtle places for the people who wear it can grasp their inner desires and also set themselves free.

One of my favourite pieces from the presentation was this denim look. The whole outfit is denim, the jacket also had nice details on the back which really stands out.

UNDERAGE had an idea for Lucid dreams, this idea was were all members of the society are prisoners to their own notions of identity and a lot of the collection is based on Erik Erikson’s ‘Four stages of the identity crisis’.

Even though distressed denim was everywhere, SS19 for UNDERAGE showed denim in different appearances. There was denim mixed with shirts and also tailored fabrics. They had embroideries and bold colours.

UNDERAGE wanted to empower womenswear with androgynous clothes feel to it. They used varies materials, such as the one I’ve mentioned before distress denim, traditional tailoring fabrics which included wool and cotton.

A BBC research says that young people in their 20s that would like to rent a place for themselves are having to pay out an “unaffordable” amount in almost two-thirds of Britain.

The BBC report also said that in London a 20 year old with an average salary would spend around 55% of their monthly wages on a small one-bedroom flat.

London is known for being one of the most expensive cities in the world, but we never really know how bad they can be, one of the most expensive things in London is the rent. Especially for students, I spoke to Heather, 20 about how it is living in London, she moved from Boston which is a small town in East Middle-lands to London the countries capital.

Most students in London are forced to share a house or flat because of how expensive the rent can be, but even with sharing a house/flat they still find it hard to pay for the rent. I asked Heather if she shares a house or flat, “I live on my own now, but before I used to live with my boyfriend.”

Heather currently pays £298 pw for her one-bedroom flat, which works our £1192 a month, I asked her if her student maintenance loan helped her pay for her rent “It helps but it doesn’t cover it, I get the £11,002 which is the max.” Event students who get the full maintenance struggle to pay for their rent, so they have to rely on students overdrafts , which luckily don’t have any interest.

I also asked her if she had ever tried to look for a different place to live since this one is so expensive. “I looked at private but it worked out much more expensive up front because my place only had a £250 deposit whereas most private want a month upfront.” The upfront cost to rent in London is outrageous so a lot of students struggle to pay for it, unless they’ve saved up before-hand or their parents can help them out.

Have you ever struggled to pay for rent? “I’ve always managed to pay it with student bank account overdraft but been very short for money.” Being short of money is a common thing in London unless you’ve got a full-time well paid job. Especially for students, who can’t work full time and are paying a fortune on their rent, trying to make ends meet can be very tough sometimes. Also according to the Save The Student survey 44% of students struggle to keep up with rent.

Most students in who live in London have to work to maintain the London life, which is very expensive. Although the living wage in London is £10.20 most jobs will not pay that and just pay around £7/8ph. I asked Heather if she had a job or ever had one whilst living in London? “Yeah, when I first moved I was a Christmas temp at Lush on Oxford street and then over summer I worked in a pub in Camden but I don’t work now.”

RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I went to the Novello Theatre to watch Mamma Mia, which is one of my favourite musicals. I had never seen the play before but I have watched the movie many, many times. I was not disappointed with the play one bit, it honestly was amazing. Now the new film has come out, I advise everyone to go and watch the play too if you have time whilst visiting London.

The atmosphere during the play was brilliant, everyone knew the words to the songs since they are ABBAs’ greatest hits and they all seemed to sing along too.

If you have time whilst visiting London, go to the theatre and watch it. There’s also an app called Todaytix which sells them at great prices and you can be right at the front.

did 1994’s assault weapon ban really work?

In 1994, President Bill Clinton passed Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. One of the subsections was the Federal Assault Weapons Ban which restricted the making of certain semi-automatic firearms for civilian use. These weapons are usually considered assault weapons, and often they have ammunition magazines because they were “large capacity”. These allowed the guns to hold more than the standard number of rounds that they are meant to have, with a particular number of bullets dependent on the control as well as certain types of firearm.

On September 13, 2004 the assault weapons ban expired. This was because the original assault weapons law was written so that it would expire after ten years. Then in 2004, some Democrats even tried to renew it, but there wasn’t much interest in Congress. Still in a few states, such as New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey, they still have their own versions of the law.

So did the ban really help do anything or not?

I spoke to Professor Eugene Volokh from UCLA who is a renowned gun control expert. I asked him about 1994’s AWB and if it really worked and this is what he said, “I’m unaware of any real mass shooting decrease evident in the data at the time of the 1994-2004 ban – or of any studies that show that the assault weapon ban was responsible for any decrease in homicide or crime of any kind. Partly because of this, I’m skeptical that a revival of the ban will do any good”

He also sent me his website in which he explains in more detail. “Lots of people have been calling for bans on so-called “assault weapons,” often arguing that such bans would reduce mass shooting deaths. But I doubt this would work, because, despite the name, “assault weapons” are no deadlier than other weapons.” says Professor Volokh

Although most experts say that the assault weapon ban didn’t work Ted Deutch believes that it helped reduce mass shootings. Ted is a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives for Florida’s 22nd congressional district.

“Let’s be clear, mass shootings went up 200 percent in the decade after the assault weapons ban expired,” said Ted Deutch at a town hall with survivors of the Stoneman Douglas High School school shooting.

From 1994 to 2004 there were 17 mass shootings causing 106 fatalities. From 2005 to 2015 there were 44 mass shootings resulting in 349 fatalities. Although the fatalities went up the percentage of households who own gun/s dropped. For example in 1996 40.1% of households owned gun/s but in 2012 only 33.1% households owned a gun/s. The rate dropped by 7%, a sizeable decrease.

In 1994 – 2004 there were only 17 mass shootings, this is considerably small comparing it to now. Overall the rate of gun crime is rapidly increasing and will continue to increase until a gun law comes into place again. As the assault weapon ban did help decrease the rate in mass shooting and gun crime. Introducing a new assault weapon ban might help decrease the number of mass shooting taking place in the USA.

FORTIE LABEL – FASHION SCOUT

Essie Buckham’s made her big London fashion week debut on Friday the 16th of Feb. Having won Fashion Scout’s Merit Award she was able to show off her talent at LFW18. As she received a fully sponsored catwalk show hosted by Fashion Scout. Before The Merit Award she already had the likes of Rihanna and Jorja Smith wearing her brand and supporting her. Which is a brilliant achievement. The collection she created was my favourite one of the day. She brought all her game into this show, by creating incredible looks. When the show ended I got a chance to have a quick interview with her to discuss her catwalk show.

Fortie catwalk show at Fashion Scout, London Fashion Week 2018

“SO I’M JUST WONDERING WHERE YOU GOT ALL YOUR INSPIRATION FROM AND HOW YOU PICKED YOUR DESIGNS?”

“It was inspired by video vixens of the 90’s and noughties, just classic R&B videos, Hip-Hop videos.”

Fortie catwalk show at Fashion Scout, London Fashion Week 2018 .Her inspiration came from the women in those music videos and how men in Hip-Hop were portraying the women, as just ‘women, money, weed or alcohol’. This inspiration was taken and showed in her looks. Her first model was male, wearing a big fur coat and chinos. Splashing money around. The male model gave his fur coat to the female model, who was wearing a dark brown swimsuit which was collaborated with Louisa Ballou.

The Merit Award winner wanted to create a ‘new’ uniform for the women, as she said “every woman kind of relates to being objectified at least once in their life”, the show she wanted to put on and the looks she wanted to create were meant to make women feel ” more fierce, fearless and like a tough bad b****”

“HOW DOES IT FEEL TO HAVE RIHANNA AND JORJA SMITH WEAR YOUR CLOTHES ?”

“It feels great. It’s amazing, they’re all very supportive. Females in the game that just love my stuff and I love working with them and they have their ideas of doing custom things and they’re not afraid to push the boundaries with silhouettes and pattern cutting, or embroideries or crazy hand painted stuff.”

It isn’t easy being a WOC in the fashion industry but she is still going at it and creating one stunning look after another. She worked very hard to get to where she is today, and is still working hard to achieve her goals. “I never thought I would be here” said Essie.

“BEING A POC AND A WOMAN IN THIS INDUSTRY, IS IT TOUGH?”

“Its very tough, its been a struggle to get here in a sense. I don’t think of that, I don’t rely on that as an excuse. I just want other POC’s to see what I’m doing. To see all these beautiful women of colour and men of colour killing it. Just the visibility is important. When I was growing up I didn’t see that.”

Essie wants to be an inspiration for young people of colour, that they should believe in their dreams.

Tom McCabe current CEO of CoolTan Arts, a charity that help adults who suffer from mental health.

Tom McCabe is the CEO of CoolTan Arts, a charity ran to help adults with mental health problems. CoolTan Arts helps adults who are referred by their GP and their psychiatric nurses. The charity started 25 years ago in Brixton, but it moved to Southwark, Walworth Road. This is charity is funded by the patience’s personal health budgets from the NHS, personalisation money via by the NHS, and they also have to apply for different trusts and foundations.

Three years ago, McCabe started working at CoolTan Arts as a consultant to help fundraising development work. After working there for a year, there were some administrating changes in CoolTan, with these changes it led to McCabe being invited to be an operation director intern. Around a year and half ago McCabe was asked to be the CEO of CoolTan Arts.

Being born and raised in Upstate New York, McCabe lived and worked many years in New York before moving to Philadelphia. It’s where he worked for years and a place that he can call home “kind of what I almost call home”. Tom comes from a background in international arts management, which means he’s worked with sound engineering, lightning design, arts administration such as working with facilities management, programming curation, performing arts, visual arts as in creating visual arts exhibitions.

When McCabe first started he worked in folk culture and folk art, which also included world music. Tom has “worn several different hats” in the arts facilities and general management. He was once manager director in an organisation in New York and Philadelphia. This then proceeded to him doing subcontract work as a consultant in some well-known festivals, such as New Orleans Jazz Festival and The Big Chill Festival.

With having moved to the U.K 21 years ago for personal reasons, McCabe “has seen a lot of the world” whether it was through work or holiday. This had led to McCabe actually conducting tours for artists in Europe and Overseas.

He saw a lot of artists struggle to maintain their mental health in a good state. McCabe was inspired. ” I came across people in the arts who are straddling a fairly fine line between an artistic genius and the other side of that fine line or threshold could be some really disturbing issues with their mental health.” And this is one of the reasons McCabe does what he does now, he says.

He explained that being an artistic genius “isn’t always easy, and it isn’t always stimulated by a health mind set. So, what’ll happen is people will self-medicate. As I found in the arts, that might be through alcohol or through drugs. You’ll see a lot of people struggling.” Because of all of this McCabe had always thought how could he help the artists, so he started to talk to them and ask them how they felt and from this onwards McCabe started working towards helping mental health.